(Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Krivoi Rog, Donetsk, and Kyiv) Report of a ...

66
The new Wohl building encompasses 3,700 square meters of space over two
floors plus a half basement; it includes premises for both a Jewish community
center and the hesed or welfare center. 65 As is the case in other new large
JDC Jewish community centers in St. Petersburg and Odesa, the Kharkiv
facility is constructed around an atrium. The building includes an elevator
and is fully wheelchair-accessible. Community center space features a 250seat
theater, two dance studios, an art
studio with a kiln, a computer animation
studio, club rooms, and an upscale
daycare center designed to attract
middle- and upper-class families.
66
The atrium of the new Wohl Center is shown at
left.
Photo:
http:/www.ejewishphilanthropy.com/new-jcc-opensin-kharkov/.
Retrieved July 18, 2011.
No sports hall or swimming pool is included in the Wohl building. Premises have been
set aside for commercial space, income from which is expected to support Jewish
community center operations. Ms. Galkevich acknowledged that no tenants had yet
been secured. She and her staff had been preoccupied with opening the building, she
said, and had not yet really tried to find tenants. She acknowledged that JDC would
need to find revenue-generating activities that would not “kill the Jewish element” in the
Center.
Ms. Galkevich stated that she is aware of the controversy engendered by the
development of similar large JDC Jewish community centers in St. Petersburg and
Odesa without community involvement and with insufficient financial support for
construction or full operation. Neither facility has engaged the local Jewish population
and each is underutilized. Steep user fees limit accessibility to the general Jewish
public. Ms. Galkevich said that she trusts her staff and a volunteer corps to address
these issues in Kharkiv.
Responding to questions about the general economic situation in Kharkiv, Ms. Galkevich
said that economic conditions are worse today than they were two years
previously, i.e., at the time of the writer’s most recent previous visit, and, she said,
circumstances were likely to decline further. Inflation is severe; it affects the cost of
65 An earlier JDC-built Jewish community center was badly designed and badly located. Hesed
operations had been located in a dilapidated older facility not fully accessible to many of its clients. The
Wohl Center is close to several public transportation lines.
66 See http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/04/05/3086729/jcc-opens-in-kharkov-ukraine and Barry
Toberman, “Ukrainian dream realised in presence of WJR backers,“ Jewish Chronicle (London), April 7,
2011.